Shaming the MSM that ran with the terrorists “Last Messages from Aleppo Campaign”

This post looks into the media’s support for the terrorists in east Aleppo during the Syrian/Russian liberation of the city in December 2016. Numerous western media outlets ran with a campaign to convince their respective audiences that the poor terrorists were innocent civilians being killed by murderous Syrian and Russian troops. Nothing could be further from the truth……as highlighted below.

People extensively cited by the Western media last week as saying their last goodbyes from eastern Aleppo appear to be well and still reporting. Among the latest videos, one of the ‘departed’ is showing off a rebel fighter wearing a suicide vest.

Last week (December 2016), as the fighting became intensive for the remaining pockets of insurgent-held areas of eastern Aleppo in Syria, numerous reports in the mainstream media cited activists on the ground. Their message was more or less the same: we are about to die under bombs, so we are saying our last goodbyes.

The 10 days of rebel evacuation from eastern Aleppo is wrapping up, and the journalists and activists appear to have survived quite well the ‘Russian bunker busters’ and other threats they reported.

Fighters haven't been allowed 2 leave. They all have explosive belts & say they won't be arrested if regime breaks deal pic.twitter.com/QROBWUGprv

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action today to disrupt al-Nusrah Front’s military, recruitment, and financing operations. Specifically, OFAC designated four key al-Nusrah Front leaders – Abdallah Muhammad Bin-Sulayman al-Muhaysini, Jamal Husayn Zayniyah, Abdul Jashari, and Ashraf Ahmad Fari al-Allak – pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, which targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism. As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of these designated individuals subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

These designations were taken in coordination with the U.S. Department of State, which today named Jabhat Fath al Sham as an alias of al-Nusrah Front – al-Qa’ida’s affiliate in Syria.

“From recruiting fighters to raising funds, these sanctioned individuals are responsible for providing key financial and logistical support to al-Nusrah Front,” said John E. Smith, Acting OFAC Director. “Treasury will continue to target al-Nusrah Front’s financial networks and choke off their access to the international financial system.”

Abdallah Muhammad Bin-Sulayman al-Muhaysini

Abdallah Muhammad Bin-Sulayman al-Muhaysini was designated for acting for or on behalf of, and providing support and services to or in support of, al-Nusrah Front.

As of late 2015, al-Muhaysini was an accepted member of al-Nusrah Front’s inner leadership circle. As of July 2015, Abdallah al-Muhaysini served as al-Nusrah Front’s religious advisor and represented al-Nusrah Front in an Idlib Province, Syria, military operations room. He has been involved in recruiting fighters to join al-Nusrah Front and helping to form a new al-Nusrah Front “state” in northern Syria. In April 2016, Muhaysini launched a campaign to recruit 3,000 child and teenage soldiers across northern Syria for al-Nusrah Front.

Al-Muhaysini has played a crucial role in providing financial aid to al-Nusrah Front. Between 2013 and 2015, al-Muhaysini raised millions of dollars to support al-Nusrah Front governance efforts in Idlib Province, Syria. As of early October 2015, al-Muhaysini had set up institutions providing financial aid to terrorist groups, including a highly successful campaign that he claimed had secured $5 million in donations to arm fighters.

No Credibility in Barrage of “Final Message” Social Media Posts From East Aleppo

DECEMBER 15, 2016
21st Century Wire

A flood of “final message” tweets and social media posts, allegedly out of Aleppo, are not from mere civilians, but are coming from activists and film makers with spots on prime time TV. The narrative of the Syrian Army and Russian forces killing civilians being pushed by these social media blasts do not match what our reporters are seeing on the ground in Aleppo where liberated civilians are rejoicing in the streets. Is it a coincidence that the social media accounts appear to be coordinating on the spreading of Western propaganda or is it an all out PR campaign?

Social media coming out of Aleppo has gone into overdrive. Well-articulated video pleas alleging near-death snake their way into the mainstream. There’s just one issue: these aren’t just any civilians, but activists and filmmakers – with spots on primetime TV. The narrative is the same each time: that an all-out genocide is taking place; that the Assad forces are going from city to city killing their own people and taking no prisoners; and that Aleppo’s rebels valiantly look death in the face as they endure alleged Russian bombardment.

‘In the Now’ found there’s little to indicate that the people appearing in the mobile videos were actual civilians experiencing the hyped ‘Russian and Syrian shelling.

More at link above…..

Here’s how they do it….

A former editor and correspondent of the The New York Times, Michael Cieply describes how the newspaper works:

Quote: It was a shock on arriving at the New York Times in 2004, as the paper’s movie editor, to realize that its editorial dynamic was essentially the reverse. By and large, talented reporters scrambled to match stories with what internally was often called “the narrative.” We were occasionally asked to map a narrative for our various beats a year in advance, square the plan with editors, then generate stories that fit the pre-designated line.

Reality usually had a way of intervening. But I knew one senior reporter who would play solitaire on his computer in the mornings, waiting for his editors to come through with marching orders. Once, in the Los Angeles bureau, I listened to a visiting National staff reporter tell a contact, more or less: “My editor needs someone to say such-and-such, could you say that?”

The bigger shock came on being told, at least twice, by Times editors who were describing the paper’s daily Page One meeting: “We set the agenda for the country in that room.”